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European Parliament Mulls Google Breakup

Reuters reports that the European Parliament is working on a resolution that proposes a forced split between Google's European search engine business and the rest of their operations. Reuters offers that:

A public call for a break-up would be the most far-reaching action proposed and a significant threat to Google's business.

While also offering:

Parliament has no power to initiate legislation and lacks the authority to break up corporations, and while the draft motion is a non-binding resolution, it would step up the pressure on the European Commission to act against Google.

Essentially an organ of the European Union which lacks the ability to act on its whims, proposes that an organ which might be able to act consider acting. There's already a European anti-trust investigation which has been continuing for roughly four years, which makes the eventual outcome of the situation likely to be one in which Europe compels Google to break up and spin off some of its operations. The European Parliament though is going have all of nothing to do with that though, especially not with a non-binding resolution.

The European Union has in the past enjoyed victories over Google in their own courts. The European "Right to be Forgotten" is one of the most notable examples of that to date. In the past Microsoft has enjoyed similar adversity in Europe including the infamous "browser ballot" they adopted to ease European concerns about browser competition.